Arsenal's Sanchez benched vs. Liverpool; Ozil out with illness

Arsenal revealed that leading scorer Alexis Sanchez will begin Saturday's encounter with Liverpool on the bench in favour of Olivier Giroud up top.

The north London outfit will also be without Mesut Ozil after the German midfielder failed to overcome an illness in time to play a role in the fixture.

Arsene Wenger's decision to leave Sanchez out of the starting team was a tactical choice, according to the manager.

"We’re going with Giroud and Welbeck up front because we will need to be a bit more direct and strong in the air," he said ahead of the contest.

It's a peculiar choice, considering that the Chile international leads all Arsenal players with 17 Premier League goals, a mark that puts him in a three-way tie with Harry Kane of Tottenham and Diego Costa of Chelsea atop the league's scoring chart.

Meanwhile, Danny Welbeck will get his first Premier League start of the season after working his way back from a knee injury that forced him to miss eight months.

Giroud's insertion into the starting XI comes more than a month after his last start on Jan. 31 against Watford. Though he's been forced to come off the bench for a majority of the season, Giroud, along with Theo Walcott, trails Sanchez for the team scoring lead with eight league goals.